A gas turbine engine includes bearings that support rotation of shafts. The bearings require lubricant and are maintained at a desired temperature by flowing a cooling buffer airflow. A pressure outside of a bearing compartment that contains the bearings is maintained at a higher pressure than the pressure within the bearing compartment to assist in retaining the lubricant within the bearing compartment. An efficient supply and exhaust of cooling buffer air to the bearing compartment improves overall engine operation efficiency and durability.
The bearing compartment is covered by a duct and a seal support that directs the cooling buffer airflow towards the bearing compartment to separate the bearing compartment from the surrounding high temperature air, preventing the bearing compartment from becoming too hot. The duct and the seal support define a bearing support assembly including one or two buffer air inlet ports. The cooling buffer air fills the space between the duct and the seal support and is then discharged from an inner diameter of the bearing support assembly. Because of the limited number of buffer air inlet ports, the buffer air does not uniformly fill the space between the duct and the seal support before discharging. This can cause non-uniform temperature distribution within the space between the duct and the seal support and can cause high temperatures in the bearing compartment.